The present invention relates to a bed apparatus with a urinal.
There are a number of persons who cannot discharge for themselves since they are confined to beds, such as, for example, hospital patients, old persons and the like. A bed apparatus with urinal has been developed for such persons.
Heretofore, a conventional bed apparatus with a urinal was disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 13,464/81 (published Mar. 28, 1981, I. Okumura et al). More specifically, a slider 6 on which a urinal 16 is mounted is provided beneath a bed A. A threaded shaft 11 is screwed into a female threaded member 15 which is secured to the slider 6. Driving force is applied from a motor 9 to a sprocket wheet 12, which is mounted on the shaft 11, to rotatably drive the shaft 11, thereby reciprocating the urinal 16. When the urinal 16 is brought to the position beneath a front cover 2 and a rear cover 3 pivotally provided in a mat B which is laid on the bed A, the front cover 2 is lowered, and the rear cover 3 is lifted by a pivotal barrier wall 18. This barrier wall 18 is always upwardly biased by the urging force of a spring 21.
However, in the conventional bed apparatus, the threaded member 15 engages the shaft 11 so as to reciprocatingly drive the urinal 16 together with the slider 6 and to transmit the driving force of a motor 9 through a gear train to the shaft 11 so as to rotatably drive the shaft 11. Thus, when the shaft 11 is inclined even slightly in a horizontal or vertical direction, the engaging state of the threaded member 15 with the shaft 11 deteriorates, causing the load on the motor 9 to be increased. Thus, the motor 9 has a shortened service life and the vibration and noise produced therefrom increases. Accordingly, it is desirable to connect the threaded member 15, the shaft 11 and the motor 9 with great precision. However, this necessitates complicated assembly, and further, the threaded shaft 11 and the gears are relatively expensive. These are two principal drawbacks of the conventional apparatus.